take made by the automated homing systems. The ADCAP was at this point
not unlike a miniature submarine with its own very precise sonar picture,
enabling the weapons tech to play vicarious kamikaze, in this case two at
once, a skill that nicely complemented his skill on the boat’s Nintendo sys-
tem. The really good news for Claggett was that he wasn’t trying a coun-
terdetection, but rather trying to save his ship first. Well, that was a
judgment call, wasn’t it?
“There’s another one forward of us, bearing one-four-zero!”
“They have us,” the Captain said, looking at the display and thinking that
probably two submarines had shot at him. Still, he had to try, and ordered a
crash turn to port. Top-heavy like her American Aegis cousins, Mutsu
heeled violently to the right. As soon as the turn was made, the CO ordered
full astern, hoping that the torpedo might miss forward.
It couldn’t be anything else. Sato was losing sight of the battle, and overrode
the autopilot, turning his aircraft into a tight left bank, leaving it to his right-
seater to hit the seat belt signs for the passengers. He could see it all in the
clear light of a quarter moon. Mulstt had executed one radical turn and then
twisted into another. There were Hashing lights on her stern as the ship’s
antisub helicopter started turning its rotor, struggling to get off and hunt
whatever-yes, it had to be a submarine. Captain Sato thought, a sneaking,
cowardly submarine attacking his brother’s proud and beautiful dcMioyei
lie was surprised to see the ship slow-to slop almost dead with ihc it Mom
thrust of her reversible propeller-and wondered why thai maneuver hml
been attempted. Wasn’t it the same as for aircraft, whose rule was the simple
axiom: Speed Is Life . . .
“Major cavitation sounds, maybe a crash-stop, sir,” the sonar chief said.
The weapons tech didn’t give Claggett a chance to react.
“Don’t matter. I have him cold on both, sir. Setting three for contact ex
plosion, getting some magnetic interference from-they must use our Nixie.
eh?”
“Correct, sailor.”
“Well, we know how that puppy works. Unit one is five hundred out,
closing fast.” The technician cut one of the wires, letting unit one go on its
own now, rising to thirty feet and fully autonomous, activating its onboard
magnetic field and seeking the metal signature of the target, then finding it,
letting it grow and grow . ..
The helicopter just got off, its strobe lights looping away from the now-sta-
tionary destroyer. The moment seemed fixed in time when the ship started
turning again, or seemed to, then a violent green flash appeared in the water
on both sides of the ship, just forward of the bridge under the vertical launch
magazine for her surface-to-air missiles. The knifelike shape of the hull was
backlit in an eerie, lethal way. The image fixed in Sato’s mind for the quarter
second it lasted, and then one or more of the destroyer’s SAMs exploded,
followed by forty others, and Mutsu’s forward half disintegrated. Three sec-
onds later, another explosion took place, and when the white water returned
back to the surface, there was little more to be seen than a patch of burning
oil. Just like her namesake in Nagasaki harbor in 1943 . . .
” Captain!” The cop i I ot had to wrench the control-wheel level away from
the Captain before the Boeing went into a stall. “Captain, we have passen-
gers aboard!”
“That was my brother…”
“We have pasxcnxt’i’x aboard, damn you!” Without resistance now, he
brought the 747 back to level flight, looking at his gyrocompass for the
proper heading. ‘ ‘Captain!”
Sato turned his head back into the cockpit, losing sight of his brother’s
grave as the airliner changed its heading back to the south.
“I am sorry, Captain Sato, but we also have a job we must do.” He en-
gaged the autopilot before reaching out to the man. “Are you all right
now?”
Sato looked forward into the empty sky. Then he nodded and composed
hintselt. “Yes, 1 am quite all right. Thank you. Yes. I am quite all right
now,” he repeated more firmly, required by the rules of his culture to set his
personal emotions aside for now. Their father had survived his destroyer
command, had moved on to captain a cruiser on which he had died off
Samar, the victim of American destroyers and their torpedoes . . . and now
again . . .
“What the hell was that?” Commander Ugaki demanded of his sonar offi-
cers.
“Torpedoes, two of them, from the south,” the junior lieutenant replied.
‘ ‘They’ve killed Mutsu.”
“What from?” was the next angry shout.
“Something undetected, Captain,” was the weak reply.
“Come south, turns for eight knots.”
“That will take us right through the disturbance from-”
“Yes, I know that.”
“Definite kill,” sonar told him. The signature on the sonar screen was defi-
nite. “No engine sounds from target bearing, but breakup noises, and this
here was one big secondary explosion. We got him, sir.”
Richter crossed over the same town the C-I7 had overflown a few days ear-
lier, and though somebody might have heard him, that was less of a concern
now. Besides, al nighl a chopper was a chopper, and there were plenty of
them here. He settled his C’omanche to a cruising altitude of fifty feet and
headed due south, telling himself that, sure, the Navy would be there, and
sure, he could land on a ship, and sure, everything was going to go just fine.
He was grateful for the lailwind until he saw the waves it was whipping up.
Oh, shit. . .
“Mr. Ambassador, the situation has changed, as you know,” Adler said
gently. The room had never heard the sound of more than one voice, but
somehow it seemed far quieter now.
Seiji Nagumo, sitting next to his senior, noted that the chair next to Adler
was occupied by someone else, another Japanese specialist from the fourth
floor. Where was Chris Cook? he asked himself as the American negotiator
went on. Why was he not here-anil what did it mean?
“As we speak, American aircraft are attacking the Marianas. As we
speak, American fleet units are engaging your fleet units. I must tell you that
we have every reason to believe that our operations will be successful and
that we will he uhlc lo isolate the Marianas from the rest of the world. The
next part of the operation, if it becomes necessary, will be to declare a mari-
time exclusion /.one around your Home Islands. We have no wish to attack
your country directly, but it is within our capabilities to cut off your mari-
time trade in a matter of days.
” Mr. Ambassador, it is time to put an end to this …”
“As you see,” the CNN reporter said from her perch next to USS Enter-
prise. Then the camera panned to her right, showing an empty box. “USS
John Stennis has left her dry dock. We are informed that the carrier is even
now launching a strike against the Japanese-held Marianas. We were asked
to cooperate with government deception operations, and after careful con-
sideration, it was decided that CNN is, after all, an American news ser-
vice . . .”
“Bastards!” General Arima breathed, looking at the empty concrete
structure, occupied only by puddles and wooden blocks now. Then his
phone rang.
When it was certain that the Japanese E-2Cs had them, two Air Force
AW ACS aircraft flipped their radars on, having staged in from Hawaii, via
Dyess on Kwajalein Atoll. In electronic terms it would be an even fight, but
the Americans had more aircraft up to make sure it was fair in no other way.
Four Japanese Eagles were aloft, and their first instinctive action was to turn
northeast toward the intruders, the better to give their comrades standing
ground alert time to gel aloft and join the air battle before the incoming at-
tack got close enough to catch their comrades on the ground. Simultaneously
the ground defenses were warned to expect inbound hostile aircraft.
Sanchez lit off his own targeting radar as he saw the Japanese fighters just
over a hundred miles away, heading in to launch their missiles. But they
were armed with AMRAAMs, and he was armed with Phoenix, which had
about double the range. He and three other aircraft launched two each for a
max-range engagement. The eight missiles went into ballistic arcs, heading
up to a hundred thousand feet before tipping over at Mach-5 and heading
back down, their height giving them the largest possible radar cross section
to home on. The Kagles detected the attack and tried to maneuver clear, but
seconds later two of the F-i5Js were blotted from the sky. The remaining
pair kept driving in. The second wave of Phoenixes took care of that.